Analysis of changes in gene expression in epidermal stem cells upon loss of Polycomb silencing

ABSTRACT: Although in vitro studies of embryonic stem cells have identified Polycomb repressor complexes (PRCs) as key regulators of differentiation, it remains unclear as to how PRC-mediated mechanisms control fates of multipotent progenitors in developing tissues. Here, we show that an essential PRC component, Ezh2, is expressed in epidermal progenitors, but diminishes concomitant with embryonic differentiation and with postnatal decline in proliferative activity. We show that Ezh2 controls proliferative potential of basal progenitors by repressing the Ink4A-Ink4B locus, and tempers the developmental rate of differentiation by preventing premature recruitment of AP1 transcriptional activator to the structural genes that are required for epidermal differentiation. Together, our studies reveal that PRCs control epigenetic modifications temporally and spatially in tissue-restricted stem cells by maintaining their proliferative potential and globally repressing undesirable differentiation programs, while selectively establishing a specific terminal differentiation program in a step-wise fashion. RNAs from FACS-purified WT and Ezh2 cKO basal cells were provided to the Genomics Core Facility of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) for quality control, quantification, reverse transcription, labeling and hybridization to MOE430A 2.0 microarray chips (Affymetrix). Arrays were scanned per the manufacturer’s specifications for the Affymetrix MOE430v2 chip.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

SUBMITTER: Elena Ezhkova 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-14045 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress